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I see an Acts 4 reality coming toward us at break neck speed. You may say what is an Acts 4 reality? In Acts 4 Peter, John and the man who was parallyzed from birth are arrested for teaching that Jesus is resurrected. The Jewish leaders question these men by saying, “who gave you the authority to create that spectacle in the temple yesterday?” Peter goes on to explain it was the name of Jesus that healed the man, you know the same Jesus you killed. This is the context of what I see coming. Boldness, signs, wonders and miracles were happening. There was a lot of activity confirming truth being spoken. That is Acts 4.

Here is what I see coming or should I say I hear coming…

I hear a roar of voices of ordinary men and women with extraordinary confidence proclaiming with boldness the truth of Jesus Christ and His resurrection power. It has started with a small number of people with microphones in buildings all over the world, but I hear it growing exponentially, organically. I hear leaders saying, “What do we do with these people? We can’t deny their story. The best we can do is try to keep it from spreading. So lets warn them to stop speaking to anybody in this Name.” You and I both know they tried this in our generation and have failed, so here it comes, like the sound of a freight train barreling down the tracks.

The banner under which these people are gaining volume is “We cannot possibly restrain ourselves from speaking about what we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.” Can you hear the sound? It may sound faint in the distance, but it is headed this way at an exponential rate. The sound will increase in volume as more voices are scooped up in the roar of the kingdom of God on earth. The sound is going to increase and keep on increasing. There will no longer be silence, my friends, it’s about to get loud!

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love. The Bible says that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. It also says for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that who so ever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have everlasting life. One final component we need to add is that the Bible says the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Whether you are celebrating this holiday alone or with other people or another person, it is not a day to be depressed, discouraged or sad about what you don’t have; it is a day to celebrate what we do have. No matter your status, married, single, divorced, or widowed we all have access to the word of God and to communion. If you needed a love letter, open your Bible to the book of John and read. If you needed a Valentines meal grab communion and partake with the lover of your soul. This is a great day to remember Who our one true love is!

Rejoice my friends this holiday reminds us that we are loved and that we are able to love and there is no greater perfect match than communion and the word of God with the King of all kings. No wonder David said who are we that you are mindful of us? My friends we are loved by the creator of everything. Happy Valentine’s Day!

What if this is a reward year? What if this is the year where God rewards those who diligently seek Him for Hebrews 13:6 says that He is a rewarder? What if this is a year in which Psalm 103, forget not all His benefits means His rewards, or that which He has given to us? What if this is a reward year and we didn’t know it?

I am praying for some friends this morning for healing, as well as Beni Johnson, who Bethel has asked the body of Christ to pray for as she is in some challenging situations physically. I am praying for healing and today I am praying Psalm 103, so everything is lining up, and I get to verse 2 of Psalm 103 and it says, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all His benefits.” We know the verse, I know the verse, but the Holy Spirit prompted me to look at what the word benefits means.

I click on the word benefits and in Hebrew it is Gamul and it means recompense, reward, that which He deserves, that which He hath given, but then it says this, “a priest, the leader of the 22nd course in the service of the sanctuary.” I am stupified, for I have never looked up this word, always assuming I knew what it meant and then today the Holy Spirit prompts me to look into it and it is a 22 word. I sense this year, 2022 is a year of reward for those who have diligently sought the Lord.

The Levites were those who ministered to God in the temple or the sanctuary, they were dedicated to this calling, and the fact that benefits and the 22nd course of the service in the sanctuary are a definition of His benefits, makes me ask the question, what if this is a reward year? Recompense year? Bill Johnson said, this is the year we recover all.

Words are powerful, but when we understand words we are speaking or words we are hearing, they are even more powerful. Understanding brings depth to the power of words. I was speaking to a friend in the UK the other day and we got on the subject of blessings and curses. She is originally from Rwanda, and her understanding of these words and their operations is significant. Witch doctors are real in Africa, charms are not a small matter and the desire to be blessed is real for them. I love learning from other cultures and merging it with the reality of the kingdom culture and God’s word.

Our conversation went to the subject of blessings and curses and I said to her, blessings are like God is using everything to work for you, it is the rhythm of His roar, the cadence of His call, we are in stride with what He is doing and everything is working for us. While a curse is things are working against you. It feels like you are facing resistance at every turn, what should be clear is confusing, what should be simple is complicated. She shouted, yes, that is it. Once we recognize where God is blessing and get in it, we find things flowing freely, and when we recognize continual resistance we look for the curse and we deal with it accordingly.

Deuteronomy 28 is a great chapter about blessings and cursing and how they are tied to our obedience to the word and voice of God. But we are not individuals, we are a community of people and we are families. Therefore, someone else’s obedience can be blessing us and someone else’s disobedience can be working against us. Words are powerful and blessings and curses are real. One is working for you and one is working against you. I hope this understanding gives you insight that sets you free. Be blessed my friends and speak blessings over people, it propels them into the flow of God working for them.

When I lived in Seattle, WA many years ago, I was a youth pastor at a Lutheran Church in that area. We had a saying in our youth ministry as a point of accountability. When we heard people speaking things that were not nice or not true, we would say, “What time is it?” And everyone would reply, “It’s 4:29!” 429 time is a reference to Ephesians 4:29 that says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” It was a great way to curb the negative voices in our youth ministry.

Now that I am much older, the Lord has matured the word edification in my life, for the people I am around do not need me to ask them what time is it. However, the word edification has not lost its power in my life, it has actually gained power, for the source of destructive voices then is the same source of those voices now, SATAN. I have been hearing of many attacks our enemy has launched against people. The voices of the enemy may come in a low hum or a loud roar, but it does the same damage, it eats away at us and like trying to swat a swarm of flies, it is exhausting trying to swat away the attack of the enemy.

This morning in prayer the Lord spoke to me and said, put a dome over this home. I immediately saw a dome being placed over our home, it was an oikodome, which is a Greek word for edification as found in Ephesians 4:29. The dome over our home is likened to a hyperbaric chamber, so the air we breath in here is the breath of God; it shields us from the atmospheric attacks of the enemy; it pumps in medicine from heaven for healing; and gives much needed rest to those in the oikodome, the house of edification. I put this dome over our house this morning in prayer and thought you might want to do the same over your house. The attacks of the enemy are relentless, the oikodome, over our house and your house will protect us from them. Yes, we are living in a bubble and it is so peaceful! Don’t jealous us, join us.

Right before I woke up this morning, I saw a number 2. The first thing I said in my sleep was “double”? The Holy Spirit replied, no not double, “squared’. I looked at the 2 again and realized it was a raised 2, so yes it was meant to represent squared not double. The verse that came with this image of the 2 was, Daniel 11:32 “the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

Now I am awake and pondering this 2 the Lord showed me and the Lord starts exhorting me saying, “You have heard it said, double, but I say unto you squared.” My friends, what we thought was going to be double for our trouble, double return, double, double, double is not what God is about to do. In this year of the 2, Hebrew year 5782, Gregorian year 2022, this month February is known for the 2, we are not getting double, we are about see God square things.

Squared is a mathematical term and is stated as such, “The “square” of a number is the product of the number and itself. Multiplying a number by itself is called “squaring” the number. Squaring a number is a more specific instance of the general exponentiation operation, exponentiation when the exponent is 2. …Modeled phenomena often takes the mathematical form of a square function, particularly equations involving velocity and acceleration” (Science Trends dot com). God is about to do exponentially more and it will involve velocity and acceleration. That sounds like Ephesians 3:20-21 ‘Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

My friends, God is about to square us! I finish writing this and the Lord says “Look up the number you saw squared in your sleep.” The number I saw was 31 squared. 31 squared is 961, 961 in Hebrew is booty or spoil, I am telling you we are about to be squared!

The Lord has a history of victory that is worthy of loud praise. May we be a people that remember and rehearse the victories of our God. May His history of victory be our meditation and our continued celebration. When we meditate on the history of God’s victories in our lives, in the lives of our friends, in our nation, and especially in the nation of Israel as stated in the word of God, it builds a defense against the enemy. The Lord has a history of victory that brings life, salvation, deliverance, healing, peace, just to name a few. When we meditate on this history, we are not as easily moved by the history of death and destruction the enemy has flaunted.

Psalm 98:1-2 reminds us of God’s history of victory, “His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him. The LORD has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.” The history of God’s victories were known by the nations, long before the World Wide Web. God has a way of announcing what He has done God’s history of victory makes the enemy nations tremble. Remember how the people of Jericho heard the history of God’s victory with Israel and Rahab told the spies, the whole city was living in fear of them. Or with Gideon, the dream the enemy had was of God’s right arm of salvation with Gideon and how the Lord was coming to defeat them, it says in Judges 7 the enemy trembled.

The history of God’s victory puts fear in the enemy, meditate on God’s history of victory, recite it, celebrate it, for it is a shield about you when the enemy comes with his history of death, debt, defeat and destruction. The enemy does not stand a chance, for the history of God’s victory is our current reality. Our God still heals, saves, delivers and He is going to put His history into our reality and the nations will know that Yahweh is God.

During worship yesterday at church the call for healing went forth and the Lord spoke to me and said, “Words have become familiar to my people so they do not say or hear them as though they have power.” An exhortation about healing was given, communion was taken, the song I Speak Jesus by Here Be Lions was sung, but the words of God were piercing my soul. As we sung I Speak Jesus, the Lord said, “The name of Jesus has power!” I listened, knowing this was not a dialogue but a correction and the Lord said again, “Every word I speak has power and My name has power!” It was a strong correction that He wanted deep in my soul. I thought about it all night and woke up praying about it this morning.

We are inundated with words, so much so, we read words and we like, share or even subscribe, but we do not let the words we read, the words we hear penetrate, transform, affect us in a deep way. We just scroll on to the next prophetic word, the next funny meme, the next testimony. We have become so familiar with words, they no longer carry power in our lives to transform us. The same is true with words we speak. We know the right thing to say, so we say it, but it carries no weight, no authority, no anointing. People may call us wise or witty, funny or fierce, but words have become so commonplace they no longer impact us the way they used to. Remember the first time you said the name of Jesus, it carried a reverence and sense of awe with it, it had power, now it is just a tag line on the end of a prayer.

The Lord is calling us back to the weightiness of words. Especially to God’s words and God’s names. They are to be sacred to us, holy, set apart, valuable. With all of this on my heart, I opened to Psalm 97 to pray and the first line stopped me and I let the weight of these words penetrate me and I pray you do the same, “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad!” The Lord reigns and because He does I am glad. There is so much weight in those words, they consume my thoughts and direct my prayers, I want the Lord to reign over me, I pray you feel the same way. Let His words regain weight in your life, for this correction is going to change everything.

No agenda just a love for the Lord my God and His word. When we approach the word of God to hear the voice of God we then can speak the words of God. This morning the Lord reveled to me that we as the nations have been under the oppression of a Midianite spirit. This spirit has released emotional, physical and spiritual oppression upon the nations, but God has plans for the spirit of the Midianites.

The spirit of the Midianites is a spirit of robbery and thievery. It robs you of joy, steals your faith, takes your harvest, plunders your peace and so many other things. The oppression of this spirit is all encompassing and very difficult to get out from under. People can’t explain it in words, they just know they are under the weight of oppression and it manifests in a variety of ways. This my friends is the spirit of the Midianites and God is dealing with this spirit of oppression that has been sitting on the nations.

If you want to do a Bible study on this spirit, it begins in Judges 6, then is traced to Joel 1. Once you reach Joel 2 the answer to this spirit is revealed, the sound of the shofar in Joel 2 points us back to Judges 7 where we have the sound of 300 shofars and this sound breaks the power of the spirit of Midian and sets the people free. The freedom manifests in rain which is a sign of God’s presence over the nations and this leads us to Zechariah 10:1.

Now, this is what I hear the Lord saying, “It’s about to rain! The spring rains will come early and they will be a sign of the spirit of Midian being broken off of the nations. Get ready for a downpour of God’s reign in the nations.” We don’t like the idea of someone ruling over us only because we have never been under the reign of King Jesus, but we are about to be under His reign in the nations and we are going to love His leadership style. It will be evident in so many ways, get ready, get ready, the enemy has been defeated and the sound of the shofar is bring the early rain of this reality.

Praying the Psalms yields many truths that reading it alone does not release. Prayer is a different way of reading and releases another way of receiving. This morning Psalm 95 was my prayer partner for the day, verses 3-7 unlocked truth I never put into words before. “For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”

God knows everything; He sees it all. Whether in the heights of the expanse or the depths of the earth, He sees and He knows all that is going on. If I know God and God knows me, I don’t need to know it all, I just need to know God. Sounds so elementary right? Yes it should be, but we love to be in the know about stuff. That’s why people watch the news everyday, scroll social media continually, follow the stock market or read magazines about people they will never meet.

One reason we like to know so much is so we can self-protect; self-prepare; self-preserve; and then we don’t have to depend on or trust God. Knowledge becomes a way to “feel” like we are in control; not caught off guard; or ready for whatever might come. But if I know the One who knows it all, I can trust Him to tell me what I need to know and where I need to go. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, didn’t have access to excess knowledge so he could protect his little family from big Pharoh and his decree to kill all babies two and under, but God knew, so God gave Joseph a dream and said go to Egypt until further notice. God is still in the business of letting those who trust Him know what to do and where to go. But to hear these things you must depend on God not on your need to be in the know.